Posts from the ‘Montana’ category

It’s cold

I snowshoed, Karl walked and ran – twice – early today. The temperature was dropping so fast that I knew it would be too cold (for me!) to do a long walk before long. In the interest of staying alive and keeping my nose and all my fingers and toes, I don’t do even the short loop walk when it is below zero… it has a few steep ups and downs – more risk of twisting an ankle or something and at the very cold temps and wind chills things can go from a funny accident to an ordeal or worse quickly. I will follow Karl’s “perimeter” walk on flat land very near the house for the next several days. Soccer and stick games will work also. Poor Karl! I believe he is feeling comfortable for the first time since his winter coat came in!

Karl will have snow on his nose until Spring….

It is apparently cold enough to use the dog bed on the front porch. But not yet cold enough to move the tail in front of the nose – maybe tomorrow.

I drove just down my road a bit, to the ridge that overlooks the valley to the west and the mountains behind and north of my house.

It’s cold.

Twilight View

Last evening, I looked up from working just in time to notice the rising moon was large and visible over the mountains. I dashed out without gloves, hat or boots to the edge of my woods. The rising moon – not quite full – was brighter than bright and both it and the setting sun made the mountain tops glow a pure white.

I do hope I get another chance at a rising moon/alpenglow duel. The reflected light off the moon and the mountain top snow contrasted against a clear blue sky was magic. A winter storm is forecast for this weekend – blizzard warnings until 5 p.m. Saturday at the moment. If it storms and if it clears for Saturday night, the full moon view could be spectacular…

Sun on the Lake

I took a long lunch break to go for groceries. Karl was with me and we always walk on a path in Somers on the way. The road skirts the northern end of Flathead Lake – separated from the lake by hay and wheat fields. It was a gray, overcast day with very few cloud breaks…

…except one dramatic hole in the clouds across the lake…a hole that let wide bands of sunshine through. I have a fondness for rays of sun through the clouds – it feels like God’s particular show for me. Today, in addition to the rays through the clouds, the lake seemed to glow just to the green side of turquoise, despite the overcast sky. The contrast was surprising and beautiful.

Sun on the Lake.

This does not count

Every morning, I turn on the outside spotlight hoping to see snow on the ground…

…not exactly what I had in mind. I think it started with a bit of snow, but then changed to sleet and freezing rain.

Not a day to go driving about if you don’t have to and I didn’t have to.

I filled the wood stove and planned a day mostly indoors. Mid-morning, I split a bit of firewood just to do something outside. Karl was with me and started letting me know that he thought a walk was in order.

In addition to the slippery footing, it was misty-foggy – I almost didn’t take a camera, but grabbed my smaller S3 at the last minute and then had some fun trying to get macro ice photos…

Ice on weeds. A bit of operator error still – this little camera is capable of better. Maybe another day.

And then the mist and fog enshrouded mountains, with a bit of blue to add some color, showed themselves on the return.

It might not count for the first snow day, but it was still a beautiful day – in its own way.

Flathead Lake Monster

Almost every large lake or loch has its monster and Flathead Lake is no exception.

From Flathead Lakers website*:

Since the first sighting reported in 1889, 79 accounts of a large-sized objects have been documented. Most (92 percent) observations have occurred during the months of April through September.

What is it the people see? The object most frequently (70 percent) described is a large eel shape creature that reachs in length from 20 to 40 feet. It is round, brown to blue-black in color, and possesses very obvious steely-black eyes and undulating hips. Others identify it as a large-sized fish from 6 to 10 feet in length.

The most obvious point made during the recorded narratives is that the sighters were not drinking or on drugs and that they hate to talk about it to anyone for fear of being identified as a “weirdo” or worse.

Hmmm…

A monster???? on this beautiful and peaceful mountain lake??? But, wait – in the photo above….to the right and just to the left of the dead tree…in the water…

GASP!…. oh, it’s a log…..I think it is a log…I’m pretty sure that is a log…

* Flathead Lakers website has information about the lake. The “Lakers” are a volunteer organization “working for clean water, healthy ecosystems and lasting quality of life in the Flathead watershed in northwest Montana”.

Photos were taken from Wayfarer’s Park on November 30, 2008.

Oh, what a night!

Not “late December back in 63″… early December in ’08 – yesterday – which started foggy, changed to cloudy and when I went out at noon on errands, it seemed like it was late afternoon, it was so dark.

Sometime about 4:30, I noticed the sun was shooting low rays from behind me – from the west – hitting the tree tops. Through the trees to the east, I could see an orangish glow from the mountain tops. The setting sun, found a hole low in the cloud cover and did incredible things to the mountains and clouds.

Oh, what a night!